Consider it pure joy...

Lisa,

Your post is right on Lisa. Even though those who make those false accusations about your MS in reference to your walk can cause you much heartache. Please be encouraged my sister. You know your Bible and you know that Paul was given much suffering, but it was was for God's glory. Don't listen to these false prophets. Just focus on God and His will. Be blessed my sister.

In Christ

Mike Ratliff

Good post, Lisa. I think you’re on the right track with your spirit. Truly, the kingdom of God is “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). Someone in whom God dwells cannot help but show it by the praise bubbling up from within, even though she may be suffering from an incurable ailment. When we get our minds on Him and what He has done for us in Christ, praise is spontaneous and heartfelt. It’s tempting to be angry with some people, but ultimately I feel sorry for those who claim to speak for God but are characterized mainly by a censorious spirit rather than by worship of God.

It seems that I recall Joni Erickson Tada referring to such comments on her radio show. She said that she was approached after a service by someone who said that obviously she didn't have ENOUGH faith to be healed. They cited the verse about the man being lowered through the roof to have access to Jesus. She reminded THEM that it was the FRIENDS that had the faith...so maybe THEY didn't have enough. I can only imagine that she spoke her words with gentle force, confidently, as I hear you in your writing. Press on, Lisa. You are such an encouragement to so many of us!

Apparently, they've added three new proverbs. Here's the latest:

669. It is not wrong to be wrong if the Lord so wills, but it is wrong to regret being wrong if being wrong was the will of God.

So much double speak. It's clearly the ramblings of a demented mind.

Pressing on with you, dear sister...

Lisa, I just read a post on Pyromaniacs before coming here; may you be encouraged in reading it. :-)

http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2008/04/where-true-mars-hill-style-ministry.html

Joyce,
That post made me weep. It is as though it broke a dam I built to make it through this trial. But the tears are ones of pity and sorrow for those people that so mercilessly and falsely accuse me; Tears of sweet joy that the Lord would even give me a heart of joy in this trial... that He would help me to keep it all in perspective and give me the strength to not back down and proclaim HIS truth for HIS glory in spite of their venom; Tears of praise that there are such believers that would post encouraging comments here and such believers, like Teampyro, that probably deal with accusations like this on a daily basis and yet still proclaim the Truth of Christ without compromise; Tears of thankfulness that I have such a godly husband and have been so abundantly blessed that God would give me an abundance of children to raise up in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

Mike, Tim, Ukrainic, Jen and Joyce, thank you for standing firm in your faith for the glory of Christ alone. May we all remain teachable and transparent for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ alone.

God blessed my heart through your sharing how He has worked, Lisa; God is so good.

Once was involved with a study on forgiveness and the Lord healing hurts(at a time when many hurts desperately needed the healing of Jehovah Raptha) ~ a point that He since has brought to mind when things or people or the adversary and even warring in the heavenlies(the Lord remaining sovereignly in control orchestrating even the most intricate detail)...could, in a sense, vampire the body/emotions/spirit is to Philippians 4:8 "everything". Yielding to the mind of Christ kick to the curb what doesn't align ~ eyes on Jesus and follow Him ~ and peace and joy will remain for God's glory and the good He intends. By God's grace and in His perfect way and time, there will be a difference with each person that is being perfected as His workmanship. It's all about Him. Always has been. Always will be.

Let's just thank/praise Him...and pray: great things He has done and is doing and will do.

"I am not what I ought to be - ah, how imperfect and deficient! I am not what I wish to be - I abhor what is evil, and I would cleave to what is good! I am not what I hope to be - soon, soon shall I put off mortality, and with mortality all sin and imperfection. Yet, though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be, I can truly say, I am not what I once was; a slave to sin and Satan; and I can heartily join with the apostle, and acknowledge, '...by the grace of God I am what I am..." John Newton

:-)

Lisa,

It is at times like these that I must bite my own tongue and keep it under control...for it wants so badly to lash out at these sad, ignorant individuals for their clear representation of their own idiocy and lack of the Spirit of truth.

I know it can be tough at times, and I know I am preaching to the choir...keep fighting the good fight, my dear sister in Christ, for there is laid up for you in heaven a crown of glory.

Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.

You know who you are in Christ, and that is all that matters.

And, to those who may be reading this who have attacked this dear saint...why don't you come on over to my place...I've got a nice woodshed I'd like to show you...

Uh oh. Jehovah Rapha. :-)

These people have no concept of Grace. They know not what mercy is.
They have not understood the Cross. They know not what living by faith means.
They are ignorant of the truth, and they have not the love of God.

Surely God can heal us here and now. He may even yet heal you Lisa, and He may heal Joni. That's His sovereign choice.
But one thing is for sure, you will be whole one Day. And you and Joni will both be jumping for joy in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ with your new legs, and new bodies.

For now, you both bring much glory and honor to our Savior's name, and your faith is an encouragement to me, and many others Lisa.
Keep up the good fight of faith.

Isn't God amazing... He died for "these people" just as He did for us. I realize I must not look at their speck till I look at the log in my own eye. while they may spew venom I pray I could return blessing instead.

God uses people like that to allow me the honor of forgiving like He did. I thank you for your story and will use it to be prepared if it happens to me.

Life is too short - I will rejoice in a God who uses trials like that for our good and his glory! Lord may I truly consder it pure JOY...

I love your bottom line!

1 Peter 2:23
When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

Thank you...

Tami

Dear Tami,
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a comment.

I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep
(John 10:14-15).

Just some food for thought:

What was the intention of the triune God in the death of Jesus Christ? Without doubting the infinite worth of Christ’s sacrifice or the genuineness of God’s “whoever will” invitation to all who hear the gospel (Rev. 22:17), [scripture] states that the death of Christ actually put away the sins of those chosen by God before the foundations of the earth were laid... not because He knew who would choose Him, but for His own purpose and glory. As it also says, "God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy..." God alone, through the death of His only Son drew His own to Himself ensuring that they would be brought to faith through regeneration and kept in faith for glory. Amazing thought. Brings one prostrate before the Lord in utter humility. What is difficult for me to comprehend is that Christ could not have died for every single person on earth or else everyone would be saved. If I think that Christ died for everyone in this efficacious sense and everyone is NOT saved even though He is said to have died for them, than He would be weak and powerless... and not the God of Truth.
Based on God's Holy Word, I do not believe in hypothetical universalism, which holds that Christ’s death made salvation possible for everyone but actual only for those who add to it a response of faith and repentance that was not secured by it. I also do not hold to universalism. Though it sounds nice to think that all will be saved no matter how they live their life and no matter what god they claim to serve, I am not the perfectly just and faithful God. I am tainted by sin and I must trust the one and only God that is True, faithful, just, holy, almighty... over any preconceived notions I might want to hold onto even if Scripture refutes it.
Scripture speaks of God as having chosen for salvation a great number of our fallen race and having sent Christ into the world to save them (John 6:37-40; 10:27-29; 11:51-52;Rom. 8:28-39; Eph. 1:3-14; 1 Pet. 1:20). Christ is regularly said to have died for particular groups or persons, with the clear implication that his death secured their salvation
(John 10:15-18, 27-29; Rom. 5:8-10; 8:32; Gal. 2:20, 3:13-14; 4:4-5; 1 John 4:9-10; Rev. 1:4-6; 5:9-10).
Facing his passion, he prayed only for those the Father had given him, not for the “world” (i.e., the rest of mankind, John 17:9, 20). Is it conceivable that he would decline to pray for any whom he intended to die for?--Packer
This is called Definite redemption and it is the only one of the three views that lines up Scripturally.
Even knowing this, ...there is no inconsistency or incoherence in the teaching of the New Testament about, on the one hand, the offer of Christ in the gospel, which Christians are told to make known everywhere, and, on the other hand, the fact that Christ achieved a totally efficacious redemption for God’s elect on the cross. It is a certain truth that all who come to Christ in faith will find mercy (John 6:35, 47-51, 54-57; Rom. 1:16; 10:8-13). ...Both the invitation and the effectual calling flow from Christ’s sin-bearing death. Those who reject the offer of Christ do so of their own free will (i.e., because they choose to, Matt. 22:1-7; John 3:18), so that their final perishing is their own fault. Those who receive Christ learn to thank him for the cross as the centerpiece of God’s plan of sovereign saving grace.

All that to say, I do not know if God sent His Son to die for "these people" unless He draws them to Himself... literally snatches them from the path they, in their flesh apart from God changing their will, drawing them to Himself, would prefer to plunge into in their flesh... as all who are sinners unclothed in the righteousness of Christ prefer to be consumed by their own lust and sinful desires.

Just a little something to think about as you press on in HIS truth and HIS love for HIS glory. And again, thank you for your sweet words and the beautiful Scripture you shared. As you rightly said on your website, "When I was dead in sin, unable to reach out for God, He reached out and saved me and made me His own!! " Excellent! I really like your blog.
Lisa

I totally agree with you. But if I had lived in Saul's time I would have wondered if Jesus died for him. And then he became Paul. All to say, who knows if they will come to the foot of the cross. Only because NOTHING is impossible with God!! I tend to look at everyone as someone God sent His son to die for, because they might be! I might spend eternity praising God with them. My hearts cry is that I might love the unlovely like He loved me! While I was His enemy He died for me. WOW!

To think that He choose me! Rescued me! Oh my sister, isn't it amazing! I am overflowing with Joy!

Thank you for your response!

Tami